NaPoWiMo - Day 6 Prompt - Today’s prompt is one of musical ekphrasis. Ekphrastic poetry comments upon or is inspired by another work of art in a different medium. Most people think of it as a poem inspired by a painting or a sculpture. But it could also be music! To that end, I offer you three possible songs to inspire a poem: Ann Peebles’ I Can’t Stand the Rain, Joe Cocker’s cover of The Letter, and Lady Gaga’s countrified version of Born This Way. These are just suggestions; you could choose any song or other piece of art you like. (Or ignore the prompt completely, of course!)
I Was Born This Way
I Was Born This Way
in an established hospital,
away from the country setting where my parents lived,
away from the place with no concrete and no common comforts,
away from grass, away from forests, and dogs,
from land turtles, and gardens, from chickens, and dirt roads,
from a small house made larger later by my father.
I was born where there was running water,
and telephones, in a place where hands had time to hold me.
I was born where there were automobiles
used for leisure and not shared by neighbors.
I was born through my mother’s fear
and my father’s joy.
And I was brought home,
grew up among the corn and beans,
and small gnarled peach trees
in the garden on the hill,
scattered chicken feed throughout my youth,
wandered the hills with no fences,
made summer fairy houses under apple trees,
Home was a place of natural symmetry
I knew the constant rhythm of each season
and the certainty that each kept coming - one after the other.
I grew up with dogs and rabbits and summer skunks.
I walked everywhere, knew everyone, especially myself.
